A Taiwanese company has discovered a way to turn coffee grounds into an eco-friendly fabric; plus, fuel up with Dunkin’s and win free coffee for a year.

Just when it seemed we’d heard of every imaginable use for coffee grounds, one of the most surprising of all comes along: making clothing out of the stuff.

A company in Taiwan called Singtex Industries has introduced a line of sportswear made from coffee grounds called S. Café sportswear. Coffee grounds are converted from compost-heap material to something more akin to UnderArmour that’s highly sustainable and eco friendly.

Inventor Jason Chen said the process of turning coffee grounds into fabric is similar to the process used to convert bamboo into the viscous material used in flooring and other products.

The end result of that process is a fabric that is lightweight, soft, breathable, and has the potential to produce a water-resistant outer layer. Once impregnated with an activated carbon made from coconut, the fabric also becomes UV-resistant, wicks away water, and binds to sweat to eliminate odors.

Singtex says coffee ground fabric is especially useful for sports and can serve as a great base layer for activities like running and rock climbing.

Chen said the grounds from just one cup of coffee are enough to create the material needed for a couple of t-shirts. Singtex also makes sportswear out of recycled plastic bottles.

The perks of being a Dunkin’s fan

My friend Jocelyn adores Dunkin’ Donuts coffee. If you come to her house and she’s brewing coffee, you can bet it’s Dunkin’s (which is partially my fault because she didn’t even drink coffee until we moved in together our senior year of college, but I digress). She’s one of those people who would gladly stand on her roof and declare her love for Dunkin’s like their recent ads have shown.

If you’re like Jocelyn, you’ll be very interested in joining DDPerks. The card helps Dunkin’ devotees earn free fuel at participating Gulf stations. For every $20 you spend on coffee, Dunkin’s gives you $0.05 cents off a gallon of fuel up to 20 gallons.

If you join now, you’ll be entered into a chance to win free coffee for a year. Dunkin’s will draw a new winner each week and the lucky DDPerks member will receive two pounds of coffee a week, delivered straight to his or her door.

Joc, I think this one has your name written all over it!

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